Original song written and composed by Lennon-McCartney
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Episode Notes To Pre Order my new album “Around the Clock” Click HERE! (Digitial, Limited CD or Limited Edition Vinyl) Here's a little behind the scenes look at "Hey Bulldog".
Capt'n Dave and The Internet Radio Man are bringing you this week's show under the Big Rock'n Roll Big Top at RadioWilderLive.com! Feeling happy, down, or just got a case of weekenditis? We've got the perfect remedy for any mood! When the Internet Radio Man put this show together, he loved the first pass so much, he didn't change a single song! Very rare! Oddly enough, The Coasters' classic ‘Poison Ivy' is in the number two slot, and that's where our Calamine lotion comes into play. Listen to Paul's bass lines in ‘Hey Bulldog,' and enjoy the rarely heard ‘Cheating' by The Animals. Do you know which famous group members make up Foxboro Hot Tubs? Or the story behind the organ in Bob Dylan's ‘Like a Rolling Stone'? We're celebrating 25 years together on this show with a beauty we dusted off from Sandie Shaw, ‘Girl Don't Come.' Plus, we're playing the number 14 song on Rolling Stone's top 1000. UB40 and The Temptations combine their talents in our covers segment. Come hang out with us and see why we didn't change a single song or the order you'll hear them! Tune in and rock on at RadioWilderLive.com
Y acabamos con "Las mil y un músicas" y "Lo Bitel" de Marta G. Navarro. Hoy escuhamos: Pepperland, Hey Jude, Yellow Submarine, It's All Too Much y Hey Bulldog.Escuchar audio
Esta semana, en "El trastero" de Carlos del Amor, conversamos con Oriol Porta, director de la cuarta edición de Impacte!, el Festival de Cine y Derechos Humanos de Catalunya, que se celebra desde el próximo martes y hasta el 28 de abril, de manera presencial, en Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Reus. Además, se podrá seguir en la plataforma Filmin y en la web del propio certamen: www.impactefilmfest.cat. Después, en "¿Quién es quién?", junto a Aitor Caminero, recibimos al ingeniero industrial David Yáñez, cofundador de la empresa Vortex Bladeless, que está desarrollando un aerogenerador sin aspas. Y acabamos con "Las mil y una músicas" y "Lo Bitel" de Marta G. Navarro. Hoy escuchamos: Pepperland, Hey Jude, Yellow Submarine, It's All Too Much y Hey Bulldog.Escuchar audio
Episode 171 looks at "Hey Jude", the White Album, and the career of the Beatles from August 1967 through November 1968. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifty-seven-minute bonus episode available, on "I Love You" by People!. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata Not really an error, but at one point I refer to Ornette Coleman as a saxophonist. While he was, he plays trumpet on the track that is excerpted after that. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. This time I also used Steve Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. I referred to Philip Norman's biographies of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney, to Graeme Thomson's biography of George Harrison, Take a Sad Song by James Campion, Yoko Ono: An Artful Life by Donald Brackett, Those Were the Days 2.0 by Stephan Granados, and Sound Pictures by Kenneth Womack. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of “Hey Jude” is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but a remixed stereo mix is easily available on the new reissue of the 1967-70 compilation. The original mixes of the White Album are also, shockingly, out of print, but this 2018 remix is available for the moment. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, a quick note -- this episode deals, among other topics, with child abandonment, spousal neglect, suicide attempts, miscarriage, rape accusations, and heroin addiction. If any of those topics are likely to upset you, you might want to check the transcript rather than listening to this episode. It also, for once, contains a short excerpt of an expletive, but given that that expletive in that context has been regularly played on daytime radio without complaint for over fifty years, I suspect it can be excused. The use of mantra meditation is something that exists across religions, and which appears to have been independently invented multiple times, in multiple cultures. In the Western culture to which most of my listeners belong, it is now best known as an aspect of what is known as "mindfulness", a secularised version of Buddhism which aims to provide adherents with the benefits of the teachings of the Buddha but without the cosmology to which they are attached. But it turns up in almost every religious tradition I know of in one form or another. The idea of mantra meditation is a very simple one, and one that even has some basis in science. There is a mathematical principle in neurology and information science called the free energy principle which says our brains are wired to try to minimise how surprised we are -- our brain is constantly making predictions about the world, and then looking at the results from our senses to see if they match. If they do, that's great, and the brain will happily move on to its next prediction. If they don't, the brain has to update its model of the world to match the new information, make new predictions, and see if those new predictions are a better match. Every person has a different mental model of the world, and none of them match reality, but every brain tries to get as close as possible. This updating of the model to match the new information is called "thinking", and it uses up energy, and our bodies and brains have evolved to conserve energy as much as possible. This means that for many people, most of the time, thinking is unpleasant, and indeed much of the time that people have spent thinking, they've been thinking about how to stop themselves having to do it at all, and when they have managed to stop thinking, however briefly, they've experienced great bliss. Many more or less effective technologies have been created to bring about a more minimal-energy state, including alcohol, heroin, and barbituates, but many of these have unwanted side-effects, such as death, which people also tend to want to avoid, and so people have often turned to another technology. It turns out that for many people, they can avoid thinking by simply thinking about something that is utterly predictable. If they minimise the amount of sensory input, and concentrate on something that they can predict exactly, eventually they can turn off their mind, relax, and float downstream, without dying. One easy way to do this is to close your eyes, so you can't see anything, make your breath as regular as possible, and then concentrate on a sound that repeats over and over. If you repeat a single phrase or word a few hundred times, that regular repetition eventually causes your mind to stop having to keep track of the world, and experience a peace that is, by all accounts, unlike any other experience. What word or phrase that is can depend very much on the tradition. In Transcendental Meditation, each person has their own individual phrase. In the Catholicism in which George Harrison and Paul McCartney were raised, popular phrases for this are "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" or "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." In some branches of Buddhism, a popular mantra is "_NAMU MYŌHŌ RENGE KYŌ_". In the Hinduism to which George Harrison later converted, you can use "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare", "Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya" or "Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha". Those last two start with the syllable "Om", and indeed some people prefer to just use that syllable, repeating a single syllable over and over again until they reach a state of transcendence. [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Jude" ("na na na na na na na")] We don't know much about how the Beatles first discovered Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, except that it was thanks to Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's then-wife. Unfortunately, her memory of how she first became involved in the Maharishi's Spiritual Regeneration Movement, as described in her autobiography, doesn't fully line up with other known facts. She talks about reading about the Maharishi in the paper with her friend Marie-Lise while George was away on tour, but she also places the date that this happened in February 1967, several months after the Beatles had stopped touring forever. We'll be seeing a lot more of these timing discrepancies as this story progresses, and people's memories increasingly don't match the events that happened to them. Either way, it's clear that Pattie became involved in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement a good length of time before her husband did. She got him to go along with her to one of the Maharishi's lectures, after she had already been converted to the practice of Transcendental Meditation, and they brought along John, Paul, and their partners (Ringo's wife Maureen had just given birth, so they didn't come). As we heard back in episode one hundred and fifty, that lecture was impressive enough that the group, plus their wives and girlfriends (with the exception of Maureen Starkey) and Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, all went on a meditation retreat with the Maharishi at a holiday camp in Bangor, and it was there that they learned that Brian Epstein had been found dead. The death of the man who had guided the group's career could not have come at a worse time for the band's stability. The group had only recorded one song in the preceding two months -- Paul's "Your Mother Should Know" -- and had basically been running on fumes since completing recording of Sgt Pepper many months earlier. John's drug intake had increased to the point that he was barely functional -- although with the enthusiasm of the newly converted he had decided to swear off LSD at the Maharishi's urging -- and his marriage was falling apart. Similarly, Paul McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher was in a bad state, though both men were trying to repair their damaged relationships, while both George and Ringo were having doubts about the band that had made them famous. In George's case, he was feeling marginalised by John and Paul, his songs ignored or paid cursory attention, and there was less for him to do on the records as the group moved away from making guitar-based rock and roll music into the stranger areas of psychedelia. And Ringo, whose main memory of the recording of Sgt Pepper was of learning to play chess while the others went through the extensive overdubs that characterised that album, was starting to feel like his playing was deteriorating, and that as the only non-writer in the band he was on the outside to an extent. On top of that, the group were in the middle of a major plan to restructure their business. As part of their contract renegotiations with EMI at the beginning of 1967, it had been agreed that they would receive two million pounds -- roughly fifteen million pounds in today's money -- in unpaid royalties as a lump sum. If that had been paid to them as individuals, or through the company they owned, the Beatles Ltd, they would have had to pay the full top rate of tax on it, which as George had complained the previous year was over ninety-five percent. (In fact, he'd been slightly exaggerating the generosity of the UK tax system to the rich, as at that point the top rate of income tax was somewhere around ninety-seven and a half percent). But happily for them, a couple of years earlier the UK had restructured its tax laws and introduced a corporation tax, which meant that the profits of corporations were no longer taxed at the same high rate as income. So a new company had been set up, The Beatles & Co, and all the group's non-songwriting income was paid into the company. Each Beatle owned five percent of the company, and the other eighty percent was owned by a new partnership, a corporation that was soon renamed Apple Corps -- a name inspired by a painting that McCartney had liked by the artist Rene Magritte. In the early stages of Apple, it was very entangled with Nems, the company that was owned by Brian and Clive Epstein, and which was in the process of being sold to Robert Stigwood, though that sale fell through after Brian's death. The first part of Apple, Apple Publishing, had been set up in the summer of 1967, and was run by Terry Doran, a friend of Epstein's who ran a motor dealership -- most of the Apple divisions would be run by friends of the group rather than by people with experience in the industries in question. As Apple was set up during the point that Stigwood was getting involved with NEMS, Apple Publishing's initial offices were in the same building with, and shared staff with, two publishing companies that Stigwood owned, Dratleaf Music, who published Cream's songs, and Abigail Music, the Bee Gees' publishers. And indeed the first two songs published by Apple were copyrights that were gifted to the company by Stigwood -- "Listen to the Sky", a B-side by an obscure band called Sands: [Excerpt: Sands, "Listen to the Sky"] And "Outside Woman Blues", an arrangement by Eric Clapton of an old blues song by Blind Joe Reynolds, which Cream had copyrighted separately and released on Disraeli Gears: [Excerpt: Cream, "Outside Woman Blues"] But Apple soon started signing outside songwriters -- once Mike Berry, a member of Apple Publishing's staff, had sat McCartney down and explained to him what music publishing actually was, something he had never actually understood even though he'd been a songwriter for five years. Those songwriters, given that this was 1967, were often also performers, and as Apple Records had not yet been set up, Apple would try to arrange recording contracts for them with other labels. They started with a group called Focal Point, who got signed by badgering Paul McCartney to listen to their songs until he gave them Doran's phone number to shut them up: [Excerpt: Focal Point, "Sycamore Sid"] But the big early hope for Apple Publishing was a songwriter called George Alexander. Alexander's birth name had been Alexander Young, and he was the brother of George Young, who was a member of the Australian beat group The Easybeats, who'd had a hit with "Friday on My Mind": [Excerpt: The Easybeats, "Friday on My Mind"] His younger brothers Malcolm and Angus would go on to have a few hits themselves, but AC/DC wouldn't be formed for another five years. Terry Doran thought that Alexander should be a member of a band, because bands were more popular than solo artists at the time, and so he was placed with three former members of Tony Rivers and the Castaways, a Beach Boys soundalike group that had had some minor success. John Lennon suggested that the group be named Grapefruit, after a book he was reading by a conceptual artist of his acquaintance named Yoko Ono, and as Doran was making arrangements with Terry Melcher for a reciprocal publishing deal by which Melcher's American company would publish Apple songs in the US while Apple published songs from Melcher's company in the UK, it made sense for Melcher to also produce Grapefruit's first single, "Dear Delilah": [Excerpt: Grapefruit, "Dear Delilah"] That made number twenty-one in the UK when it came out in early 1968, on the back of publicity about Grapefruit's connection with the Beatles, but future singles by the band were much less successful, and like several other acts involved with Apple, they found that they were more hampered by the Beatles connection than helped. A few other people were signed to Apple Publishing early on, of whom the most notable was Jackie Lomax. Lomax had been a member of a minor Merseybeat group, the Undertakers, and after they had split up, he'd been signed by Brian Epstein with a new group, the Lomax Alliance, who had released one single, "Try as You May": [Excerpt: The Lomax Alliance, "Try As You May"] After Epstein's death, Lomax had plans to join another band, being formed by another Merseybeat musician, Chris Curtis, the former drummer of the Searchers. But after going to the Beatles to talk with them about them helping the new group financially, Lomax was persuaded by John Lennon to go solo instead. He may later have regretted that decision, as by early 1968 the people that Curtis had recruited for his new band had ditched him and were making a name for themselves as Deep Purple. Lomax recorded one solo single with funding from Stigwood, a cover version of a song by an obscure singer-songwriter, Jake Holmes, "Genuine Imitation Life": [Excerpt: Jackie Lomax, "Genuine Imitation Life"] But he was also signed to Apple Publishing as a songwriter. The Beatles had only just started laying out plans for Apple when Epstein died, and other than the publishing company one of the few things they'd agreed on was that they were going to have a film company, which was to be run by Denis O'Dell, who had been an associate producer on A Hard Day's Night and on How I Won The War, the Richard Lester film Lennon had recently starred in. A few days after Epstein's death, they had a meeting, in which they agreed that the band needed to move forward quickly if they were going to recover from Epstein's death. They had originally been planning on going to India with the Maharishi to study meditation, but they decided to put that off until the new year, and to press forward with a film project Paul had been talking about, to be titled Magical Mystery Tour. And so, on the fifth of September 1967, they went back into the recording studio and started work on a song of John's that was earmarked for the film, "I am the Walrus": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] Magical Mystery Tour, the film, has a mixed reputation which we will talk about shortly, but one defence that Paul McCartney has always made of it is that it's the only place where you can see the Beatles performing "I am the Walrus". While the song was eventually relegated to a B-side, it's possibly the finest B-side of the Beatles' career, and one of the best tracks the group ever made. As with many of Lennon's songs from this period, the song was a collage of many different elements pulled from his environment and surroundings, and turned into something that was rather more than the sum of its parts. For its musical inspiration, Lennon pulled from, of all things, a police siren going past his house. (For those who are unfamiliar with what old British police sirens sounded like, as opposed to the ones in use for most of my lifetime or in other countries, here's a recording of one): [Excerpt: British police siren ca 1968] That inspired Lennon to write a snatch of lyric to go with the sound of the siren, starting "Mister city policeman sitting pretty". He had two other song fragments, one about sitting in the garden, and one about sitting on a cornflake, and he told Hunter Davies, who was doing interviews for his authorised biography of the group, “I don't know how it will all end up. Perhaps they'll turn out to be different parts of the same song.” But the final element that made these three disparate sections into a song was a letter that came from Stephen Bayley, a pupil at Lennon's old school Quarry Bank, who told him that the teachers at the school -- who Lennon always thought of as having suppressed his creativity -- were now analysing Beatles lyrics in their lessons. Lennon decided to come up with some nonsense that they couldn't analyse -- though as nonsensical as the finished song is, there's an underlying anger to a lot of it that possibly comes from Lennon thinking of his school experiences. And so Lennon asked his old schoolfriend Pete Shotton to remind him of a disgusting playground chant that kids used to sing in schools in the North West of England (and which they still sang with very minor variations at my own school decades later -- childhood folklore has a remarkably long life). That rhyme went: Yellow matter custard, green snot pie All mixed up with a dead dog's eye Slap it on a butty, nice and thick, And drink it down with a cup of cold sick Lennon combined some parts of this with half-remembered fragments of Lewis Carrol's The Walrus and the Carpenter, and with some punning references to things that were going on in his own life and those of his friends -- though it's difficult to know exactly which of the stories attached to some of the more incomprehensible bits of the lyrics are accurate. The story that the line "I am the eggman" is about a sexual proclivity of Eric Burdon of the Animals seems plausible, while the contention by some that the phrase "semolina pilchard" is a reference to Sgt Pilcher, the corrupt policeman who had arrested three of the Rolling Stones, and would later arrest Lennon, on drugs charges, seems less likely. The track is a masterpiece of production, but the release of the basic take on Anthology 2 in 1996 showed that the underlying performance, before George Martin worked his magic with the overdubs, is still a remarkable piece of work: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus (Anthology 2 version)"] But Martin's arrangement and production turned the track from a merely very good track into a masterpiece. The string arrangement, very much in the same mould as that for "Strawberry Fields Forever" but giving a very different effect with its harsh cello glissandi, is the kind of thing one expects from Martin, but there's also the chanting of the Mike Sammes Singers, who were more normally booked for sessions like Englebert Humperdinck's "The Last Waltz": [Excerpt: Engelbert Humperdinck, "The Last Waltz"] But here were instead asked to imitate the sound of the strings, make grunting noises, and generally go very far out of their normal comfort zone: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] But the most fascinating piece of production in the entire track is an idea that seems to have been inspired by people like John Cage -- a live feed of a radio being tuned was played into the mono mix from about the halfway point, and whatever was on the radio at the time was captured: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] This is also why for many decades it was impossible to have a true stereo mix of the track -- the radio part was mixed directly into the mono mix, and it wasn't until the 1990s that someone thought to track down a copy of the original radio broadcasts and recreate the process. In one of those bits of synchronicity that happen more often than you would think when you're creating aleatory art, and which are why that kind of process can be so appealing, one bit of dialogue from the broadcast of King Lear that was on the radio as the mixing was happening was *perfectly* timed: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] After completing work on the basic track for "I am the Walrus", the group worked on two more songs for the film, George's "Blue Jay Way" and a group-composed twelve-bar blues instrumental called "Flying", before starting production. Magical Mystery Tour, as an idea, was inspired in equal parts by Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, the collective of people we talked about in the episode on the Grateful Dead who travelled across the US extolling the virtues of psychedelic drugs, and by mystery tours, a British working-class tradition that has rather fallen out of fashion in the intervening decades. A mystery tour would generally be put on by a coach-hire company, and would be a day trip to an unannounced location -- though the location would in fact be very predictable, and would be a seaside town within a couple of hours' drive of its starting point. In the case of the ones the Beatles remembered from their own childhoods, this would be to a coastal town in Lancashire or Wales, like Blackpool, Rhyl, or Prestatyn. A coachload of people would pay to be driven to this random location, get very drunk and have a singsong on the bus, and spend a day wherever they were taken. McCartney's plan was simple -- they would gather a group of passengers and replicate this experience over the course of several days, and film whatever went on, but intersperse that with more planned out sketches and musical numbers. For this reason, along with the Beatles and their associates, the cast included some actors found through Spotlight and some of the group's favourite performers, like the comedian Nat Jackley (whose comedy sequence directed by John was cut from the final film) and the surrealist poet/singer/comedian Ivor Cutler: [Excerpt: Ivor Cutler, "I'm Going in a Field"] The film also featured an appearance by a new band who would go on to have great success over the next year, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They had recorded their first single in Abbey Road at the same time as the Beatles were recording Revolver, but rather than being progressive psychedelic rock, it had been a remake of a 1920s novelty song: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "My Brother Makes the Noises For the Talkies"] Their performance in Magical Mystery Tour was very different though -- they played a fifties rock pastiche written by band leaders Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes while a stripper took off her clothes. While several other musical sequences were recorded for the film, including one by the band Traffic and one by Cutler, other than the Beatles tracks only the Bonzos' song made it into the finished film: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "Death Cab for Cutie"] That song, thirty years later, would give its name to a prominent American alternative rock band. Incidentally the same night that Magical Mystery Tour was first broadcast was also the night that the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band first appeared on a TV show, Do Not Adjust Your Set, which featured three future members of the Monty Python troupe -- Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones. Over the years the careers of the Bonzos, the Pythons, and the Beatles would become increasingly intertwined, with George Harrison in particular striking up strong friendships and working relationships with Bonzos Neil Innes and "Legs" Larry Smith. The filming of Magical Mystery Tour went about as well as one might expect from a film made by four directors, none of whom had any previous filmmaking experience, and none of whom had any business knowledge. The Beatles were used to just turning up and having things magically done for them by other people, and had no real idea of the infrastructure challenges that making a film, even a low-budget one, actually presents, and ended up causing a great deal of stress to almost everyone involved. The completed film was shown on TV on Boxing Day 1967 to general confusion and bemusement. It didn't help that it was originally broadcast in black and white, and so for example the scene showing shifting landscapes (outtake footage from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, tinted various psychedelic colours) over the "Flying" music, just looked like grey fuzz. But also, it just wasn't what people were expecting from a Beatles film. This was a ramshackle, plotless, thing more inspired by Andy Warhol's underground films than by the kind of thing the group had previously appeared in, and it was being presented as Christmas entertainment for all the family. And to be honest, it's not even a particularly good example of underground filmmaking -- though it looks like a masterpiece when placed next to something like the Bee Gees' similar effort, Cucumber Castle. But there are enough interesting sequences in there for the project not to be a complete failure -- and the deleted scenes on the DVD release, including the performances by Cutler and Traffic, and the fact that the film was edited down from ten hours to fifty-two minutes, makes one wonder if there's a better film that could be constructed from the original footage. Either way, the reaction to the film was so bad that McCartney actually appeared on David Frost's TV show the next day to defend it and, essentially, apologise. While they were editing the film, the group were also continuing to work in the studio, including on two new McCartney songs, "The Fool on the Hill", which was included in Magical Mystery Tour, and "Hello Goodbye", which wasn't included on the film's soundtrack but was released as the next single, with "I Am the Walrus" as the B-side: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Incidentally, in the UK the soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour was released as a double-EP rather than as an album (in the US, the group's recent singles and B-sides were added to turn it into a full-length album, which is how it's now generally available). "I Am the Walrus" was on the double-EP as well as being on the single's B-side, and the double-EP got to number two on the singles charts, meaning "I am the Walrus" was on the records at number one and number two at the same time. Before it became obvious that the film, if not the soundtrack, was a disaster, the group held a launch party on the twenty-first of December, 1967. The band members went along in fancy dress, as did many of the cast and crew -- the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performed at the party. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys also turned up at the party, and apparently at one point jammed with the Bonzos, and according to some, but not all, reports, a couple of the Beatles joined in as well. Love and Johnston had both just met the Maharishi for the first time a couple of days earlier, and Love had been as impressed as the Beatles were, and it may have been at this party that the group mentioned to Love that they would soon be going on a retreat in India with the guru -- a retreat that was normally meant for training TM instructors, but this time seemed to be more about getting celebrities involved. Love would also end up going with them. That party was also the first time that Cynthia Lennon had an inkling that John might not be as faithful to her as she previously supposed. John had always "joked" about being attracted to George Harrison's wife, Patti, but this time he got a little more blatant about his attraction than he ever had previously, to the point that he made Cynthia cry, and Cynthia's friend, the pop star Lulu, decided to give Lennon a very public dressing-down for his cruelty to his wife, a dressing-down that must have been a sight to behold, as Lennon was dressed as a Teddy boy while Lulu was in a Shirley Temple costume. It's a sign of how bad the Lennons' marriage was at this point that this was the second time in a two-month period where Cynthia had ended up crying because of John at a film launch party and been comforted by a female pop star. In October, Cilla Black had held a party to celebrate the belated release of John's film How I Won the War, and during the party Georgie Fame had come up to Black and said, confused, "Cynthia Lennon is hiding in your wardrobe". Black went and had a look, and Cynthia explained to her “I'm waiting to see how long it is before John misses me and comes looking for me.” Black's response had been “You'd better face it, kid—he's never gonna come.” Also at the Magical Mystery Tour party was Lennon's father, now known as Freddie Lennon, and his new nineteen-year-old fiancee. While Hunter Davis had been researching the Beatles' biography, he'd come across some evidence that the version of Freddie's attitude towards John that his mother's side of the family had always told him -- that Freddie had been a cruel and uncaring husband who had not actually wanted to be around his son -- might not be the whole of the truth, and that the mother who he had thought of as saintly might also have had some part to play in their marriage breaking down and Freddie not seeing his son for twenty years. The two had made some tentative attempts at reconciliation, and indeed Freddie would even come and live with John for a while, though within a couple of years the younger Lennon's heart would fully harden against his father again. Of course, the things that John always resented his father for were pretty much exactly the kind of things that Lennon himself was about to do. It was around this time as well that Derek Taylor gave the Beatles copies of the debut album by a young singer/songwriter named Harry Nilsson. Nilsson will be getting his own episode down the line, but not for a couple of years at my current rates, so it's worth bringing that up here, because that album became a favourite of all the Beatles, and would have a huge influence on their songwriting for the next couple of years, and because one song on the album, "1941", must have resonated particularly deeply with Lennon right at this moment -- an autobiographical song by Nilsson about how his father had left him and his mother when he was a small boy, and about his own fear that, as his first marriage broke down, he was repeating the pattern with his stepson Scott: [Excerpt: Nilsson, "1941"] The other major event of December 1967, rather overshadowed by the Magical Mystery Tour disaster the next day, was that on Christmas Day Paul McCartney and Jane Asher announced their engagement. A few days later, George Harrison flew to India. After John and Paul had had their outside film projects -- John starring in How I Won The War and Paul doing the soundtrack for The Family Way -- the other two Beatles more or less simultaneously did their own side project films, and again one acted while the other did a soundtrack. Both of these projects were in the rather odd subgenre of psychedelic shambolic comedy film that sprang up in the mid sixties, a subgenre that produced a lot of fascinating films, though rather fewer good ones. Indeed, both of them were in the subsubgenre of shambolic psychedelic *sex* comedies. In Ringo's case, he had a small role in the film Candy, which was based on the novel we mentioned in the last episode, co-written by Terry Southern, which was in itself a loose modern rewriting of Voltaire's Candide. Unfortunately, like such other classics of this subgenre as Anthony Newley's Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, Candy has dated *extremely* badly, and unless you find repeated scenes of sexual assault and rape, ethnic stereotypes, and jokes about deformity and disfigurement to be an absolute laugh riot, it's not a film that's worth seeking out, and Starr's part in it is not a major one. Harrison's film was of the same basic genre -- a film called Wonderwall about a mad scientist who discovers a way to see through the walls of his apartment, and gets to see a photographer taking sexy photographs of a young woman named Penny Lane, played by Jane Birkin: [Excerpt: Some Wonderwall film dialogue ripped from the Blu-Ray] Wonderwall would, of course, later inspire the title of a song by Oasis, and that's what the film is now best known for, but it's a less-unwatchable film than Candy, and while still problematic it's less so. Which is something. Harrison had been the Beatle with least involvement in Magical Mystery Tour -- McCartney had been the de facto director, Starr had been the lead character and the only one with much in the way of any acting to do, and Lennon had written the film's standout scene and its best song, and had done a little voiceover narration. Harrison, by contrast, barely has anything to do in the film apart from the one song he contributed, "Blue Jay Way", and he said of the project “I had no idea what was happening and maybe I didn't pay enough attention because my problem, basically, was that I was in another world, I didn't really belong; I was just an appendage.” He'd expressed his discomfort to his friend Joe Massot, who was about to make his first feature film. Massot had got to know Harrison during the making of his previous film, Reflections on Love, a mostly-silent short which had starred Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd, and which had been photographed by Robert Freeman, who had been the photographer for the Beatles' album covers from With the Beatles through Rubber Soul, and who had taken most of the photos that Klaus Voorman incorporated into the cover of Revolver (and whose professional association with the Beatles seemed to come to an end around the same time he discovered that Lennon had been having an affair with his wife). Massot asked Harrison to write the music for the film, and told Harrison he would have complete free rein to make whatever music he wanted, so long as it fit the timing of the film, and so Harrison decided to create a mixture of Western rock music and the Indian music he loved. Harrison started recording the music at the tail end of 1967, with sessions with several London-based Indian musicians and John Barham, an orchestrator who had worked with Ravi Shankar on Shankar's collaborations with Western musicians, including the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack we talked about in the "All You Need is Love" episode. For the Western music, he used the Remo Four, a Merseybeat group who had been on the scene even before the Beatles, and which contained a couple of classmates of Paul McCartney, but who had mostly acted as backing musicians for other artists. They'd backed Johnny Sandon, the former singer with the Searchers, on a couple of singles, before becoming the backing band for Tommy Quickly, a NEMS artist who was unsuccessful despite starting his career with a Lennon/McCartney song, "Tip of My Tongue": [Excerpt: Tommy Quickly, "Tip of My Tongue"] The Remo Four would later, after a lineup change, become Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, who would become one-hit wonders in the seventies, and during the Wonderwall sessions they recorded a song that went unreleased at the time, and which would later go on to be rerecorded by Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke. "In the First Place" also features Harrison on backing vocals and possibly guitar, and was not submitted for the film because Harrison didn't believe that Massot wanted any vocal tracks, but the recording was later discovered and used in a revised director's cut of the film in the nineties: [Excerpt: The Remo Four, "In the First Place"] But for the most part the Remo Four were performing instrumentals written by Harrison. They weren't the only Western musicians performing on the sessions though -- Peter Tork of the Monkees dropped by these sessions and recorded several short banjo solos, which were used in the film soundtrack but not in the soundtrack album (presumably because Tork was contracted to another label): [Excerpt: Peter Tork, "Wonderwall banjo solo"] Another musician who was under contract to another label was Eric Clapton, who at the time was playing with The Cream, and who vaguely knew Harrison and so joined in for the track "Ski-ing", playing lead guitar under the cunning, impenetrable, pseudonym "Eddie Clayton", with Harrison on sitar, Starr on drums, and session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan on bass: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Ski-ing"] But the bulk of the album was recorded in EMI's studios in the city that is now known as Mumbai but at the time was called Bombay. The studio facilities in India had up to that point only had a mono tape recorder, and Bhaskar Menon, one of the top executives at EMI's Indian division and later the head of EMI music worldwide, personally brought the first stereo tape recorder to the studio to aid in Harrison's recording. The music was all composed by Harrison and performed by the Indian musicians, and while Harrison was composing in an Indian mode, the musicians were apparently fascinated by how Western it sounded to them: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Microbes"] While he was there, Harrison also got the instrumentalists to record another instrumental track, which wasn't to be used for the film: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "The Inner Light (instrumental)"] That track would, instead, become part of what was to be Harrison's first composition to make a side of a Beatles single. After John and George had appeared on the David Frost show talking about the Maharishi, in September 1967, George had met a lecturer in Sanskrit named Juan Mascaró, who wrote to Harrison enclosing a book he'd compiled of translations of religious texts, telling him he'd admired "Within You Without You" and thought it would be interesting if Harrison set something from the Tao Te Ching to music. He suggested a text that, in his translation, read: "Without going out of my door I can know all things on Earth Without looking out of my window I can know the ways of heaven For the farther one travels, the less one knows The sage, therefore Arrives without travelling Sees all without looking Does all without doing" Harrison took that text almost verbatim, though he created a second verse by repeating the first few lines with "you" replacing "I" -- concerned that listeners might think he was just talking about himself, and wouldn't realise it was a more general statement -- and he removed the "the sage, therefore" and turned the last few lines into imperative commands rather than declarative statements: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] The song has come in for some criticism over the years as being a little Orientalist, because in critics' eyes it combines Chinese philosophy with Indian music, as if all these things are equally "Eastern" and so all the same really. On the other hand there's a good argument that an English songwriter taking a piece of writing written in Chinese and translated into English by a Spanish man and setting it to music inspired by Indian musical modes is a wonderful example of cultural cross-pollination. As someone who's neither Chinese nor Indian I wouldn't want to take a stance on it, but clearly the other Beatles were impressed by it -- they put it out as the B-side to their next single, even though the only Beatles on it are Harrison and McCartney, with the latter adding a small amount of harmony vocal: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] And it wasn't because the group were out of material. They were planning on going to Rishikesh to study with the Maharishi, and wanted to get a single out for release while they were away, and so in one week they completed the vocal overdubs on "The Inner Light" and recorded three other songs, two by John and one by Paul. All three of the group's songwriters brought in songs that were among their best. John's first contribution was a song whose lyrics he later described as possibly the best he ever wrote, "Across the Universe". He said the lyrics were “purely inspirational and were given to me as boom! I don't own it, you know; it came through like that … Such an extraordinary meter and I can never repeat it! It's not a matter of craftsmanship, it wrote itself. It drove me out of bed. I didn't want to write it … It's like being possessed, like a psychic or a medium.” But while Lennon liked the song, he was never happy with the recording of it. They tried all sorts of things to get the sound he heard in his head, including bringing in some fans who were hanging around outside to sing backing vocals. He said of the track "I was singing out of tune and instead of getting a decent choir, we got fans from outside, Apple Scruffs or whatever you call them. They came in and were singing all off-key. Nobody was interested in doing the tune originally.” [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] The "jai guru deva" chorus there is the first reference to the teachings of the Maharishi in one of the Beatles' records -- Guru Dev was the Maharishi's teacher, and the phrase "Jai guru dev" is a Sanskrit one which I've seen variously translated as "victory to the great teacher", and "hail to the greatness within you". Lennon would say shortly before his death “The Beatles didn't make a good record out of it. I think subconsciously sometimes we – I say ‘we' though I think Paul did it more than the rest of us – Paul would sort of subconsciously try and destroy a great song … Usually we'd spend hours doing little detailed cleaning-ups of Paul's songs, when it came to mine, especially if it was a great song like ‘Strawberry Fields' or ‘Across The Universe', somehow this atmosphere of looseness and casualness and experimentation would creep in … It was a _lousy_ track of a great song and I was so disappointed by it …The guitars are out of tune and I'm singing out of tune because I'm psychologically destroyed and nobody's supporting me or helping me with it, and the song was never done properly.” Of course, this is only Lennon's perception, and it's one that the other participants would disagree with. George Martin, in particular, was always rather hurt by the implication that Lennon's songs had less attention paid to them, and he would always say that the problem was that Lennon in the studio would always say "yes, that's great", and only later complain that it hadn't been what he wanted. No doubt McCartney did put in more effort on his own songs than on Lennon's -- everyone has a bias towards their own work, and McCartney's only human -- but personally I suspect that a lot of the problem comes down to the two men having very different personalities. McCartney had very strong ideas about his own work and would drive the others insane with his nitpicky attention to detail. Lennon had similarly strong ideas, but didn't have the attention span to put the time and effort in to force his vision on others, and didn't have the technical knowledge to express his ideas in words they'd understand. He expected Martin and the other Beatles to work miracles, and they did -- but not the miracles he would have worked. That track was, rather than being chosen for the next single, given to Spike Milligan, who happened to be visiting the studio and was putting together an album for the environmental charity the World Wildlife Fund. The album was titled "No One's Gonna Change Our World": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] That track is historic in another way -- it would be the last time that George Harrison would play sitar on a Beatles record, and it effectively marks the end of the period of psychedelia and Indian influence that had started with "Norwegian Wood" three years earlier, and which many fans consider their most creative period. Indeed, shortly after the recording, Harrison would give up the sitar altogether and stop playing it. He loved sitar music as much as he ever had, and he still thought that Indian classical music spoke to him in ways he couldn't express, and he continued to be friends with Ravi Shankar for the rest of his life, and would only become more interested in Indian religious thought. But as he spent time with Shankar he realised he would never be as good on the sitar as he hoped. He said later "I thought, 'Well, maybe I'm better off being a pop singer-guitar-player-songwriter – whatever-I'm-supposed-to-be' because I've seen a thousand sitar-players in India who are twice as better as I'll ever be. And only one of them Ravi thought was going to be a good player." We don't have a precise date for when it happened -- I suspect it was in June 1968, so a few months after the "Across the Universe" recording -- but Shankar told Harrison that rather than try to become a master of a music that he hadn't encountered until his twenties, perhaps he should be making the music that was his own background. And as Harrison put it "I realised that was riding my bike down a street in Liverpool and hearing 'Heartbreak Hotel' coming out of someone's house.": [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel"] In early 1968 a lot of people seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as if Christmas 1967 had been the flick of a switch and instead of whimsy and ornamentation, the thing to do was to make music that was influenced by early rock and roll. In the US the Band and Bob Dylan were making music that was consciously shorn of all studio experimentation, while in the UK there was a revival of fifties rock and roll. In April 1968 both "Peggy Sue" and "Rock Around the Clock" reentered the top forty in the UK, and the Who were regularly including "Summertime Blues" in their sets. Fifties nostalgia, which would make occasional comebacks for at least the next forty years, was in its first height, and so it's not surprising that Paul McCartney's song, "Lady Madonna", which became the A-side of the next single, has more than a little of the fifties about it. Of course, the track isn't *completely* fifties in its origins -- one of the inspirations for the track seems to have been the Rolling Stones' then-recent hit "Let's Spend The Night Together": [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Let's Spend the Night Together"] But the main source for the song's music -- and for the sound of the finished record -- seems to have been Johnny Parker's piano part on Humphrey Lyttleton's "Bad Penny Blues", a hit single engineered by Joe Meek in the fifties: [Excerpt: Humphrey Lyttleton, "Bad Penny Blues"] That song seems to have been on the group's mind for a while, as a working title for "With a Little Help From My Friends" had at one point been "Bad Finger Blues" -- a title that would later give the name to a band on Apple. McCartney took Parker's piano part as his inspiration, and as he later put it “‘Lady Madonna' was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing. I got my left hand doing an arpeggio thing with the chord, an ascending boogie-woogie left hand, then a descending right hand. I always liked that, the juxtaposition of a line going down meeting a line going up." [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] That idea, incidentally, is an interesting reversal of what McCartney had done on "Hello, Goodbye", where the bass line goes down while the guitar moves up -- the two lines moving away from each other: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Though that isn't to say there's no descending bass in "Lady Madonna" -- the bridge has a wonderful sequence where the bass just *keeps* *descending*: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] Lyrically, McCartney was inspired by a photo in National Geographic of a woman in Malaysia, captioned “Mountain Madonna: with one child at her breast and another laughing into her face, sees her quality of life threatened.” But as he put it “The people I was brought up amongst were often Catholic; there are lots of Catholics in Liverpool because of the Irish connection and they are often religious. When they have a baby I think they see a big connection between themselves and the Virgin Mary with her baby. So the original concept was the Virgin Mary but it quickly became symbolic of every woman; the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working class woman. It's really a tribute to the mother figure, it's a tribute to women.” Musically though, the song was more a tribute to the fifties -- while the inspiration had been a skiffle hit by Humphrey Lyttleton, as soon as McCartney started playing it he'd thought of Fats Domino, and the lyric reflects that to an extent -- just as Domino's "Blue Monday" details the days of the week for a weary working man who only gets to enjoy himself on Saturday night, "Lady Madonna"'s lyrics similarly look at the work a mother has to do every day -- though as McCartney later noted "I was writing the words out to learn it for an American TV show and I realised I missed out Saturday ... So I figured it must have been a real night out." The vocal was very much McCartney doing a Domino impression -- something that wasn't lost on Fats, who cut his own version of the track later that year: [Excerpt: Fats Domino, "Lady Madonna"] The group were so productive at this point, right before the journey to India, that they actually cut another song *while they were making a video for "Lady Madonna"*. They were booked into Abbey Road to film themselves performing the song so it could be played on Top of the Pops while they were away, but instead they decided to use the time to cut a new song -- John had a partially-written song, "Hey Bullfrog", which was roughly the same tempo as "Lady Madonna", so they could finish that up and then re-edit the footage to match the record. The song was quickly finished and became "Hey Bulldog": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Bulldog"] One of Lennon's best songs from this period, "Hey Bulldog" was oddly chosen only to go on the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine. Either the band didn't think much of it because it had come so easily, or it was just assigned to the film because they were planning on being away for several months and didn't have any other projects they were working on. The extent of the group's contribution to the film was minimal – they were not very hands-on, and the film, which was mostly done as an attempt to provide a third feature film for their United Artists contract without them having to do any work, was made by the team that had done the Beatles cartoon on American TV. There's some evidence that they had a small amount of input in the early story stages, but in general they saw the cartoon as an irrelevance to them -- the only things they contributed were the four songs "All Together Now", "It's All Too Much", "Hey Bulldog" and "Only a Northern Song", and a brief filmed appearance for the very end of the film, recorded in January: [Excerpt: Yellow Submarine film end] McCartney also took part in yet another session in early February 1968, one produced by Peter Asher, his fiancee's brother, and former singer with Peter and Gordon. Asher had given up on being a pop star and was trying to get into the business side of music, and he was starting out as a producer, producing a single by Paul Jones, the former lead singer of Manfred Mann. The A-side of the single, "And the Sun Will Shine", was written by the Bee Gees, the band that Robert Stigwood was managing: [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "And the Sun Will Shine"] While the B-side was an original by Jones, "The Dog Presides": [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "The Dog Presides"] Those tracks featured two former members of the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and Paul Samwell-Smith, on guitar and bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Asher asked McCartney to play drums on both sides of the single, saying later "I always thought he was a great, underrated drummer." McCartney was impressed by Asher's production, and asked him to get involved with the new Apple Records label that would be set up when the group returned from India. Asher eventually became head of A&R for the label. And even before "Lady Madonna" was mixed, the Beatles were off to India. Mal Evans, their roadie, went ahead with all their luggage on the fourteenth of February, so he could sort out transport for them on the other end, and then John and George followed on the fifteenth, with their wives Pattie and Cynthia and Pattie's sister Jenny (John and Cynthia's son Julian had been left with his grandmother while they went -- normally Cynthia wouldn't abandon Julian for an extended period of time, but she saw the trip as a way to repair their strained marriage). Paul and Ringo followed four days later, with Ringo's wife Maureen and Paul's fiancee Jane Asher. The retreat in Rishikesh was to become something of a celebrity affair. Along with the Beatles came their friend the singer-songwriter Donovan, and Donovan's friend and songwriting partner, whose name I'm not going to say here because it's a slur for Romani people, but will be known to any Donovan fans. Donovan at this point was also going through changes. Like the Beatles, he was largely turning away from drug use and towards meditation, and had recently written his hit single "There is a Mountain" based around a saying from Zen Buddhism: [Excerpt: Donovan, "There is a Mountain"] That was from his double-album A Gift From a Flower to a Garden, which had come out in December 1967. But also like John and Paul he was in the middle of the breakdown of a long-term relationship, and while he would remain with his then-partner until 1970, and even have another child with her, he was secretly in love with another woman. In fact he was secretly in love with two other women. One of them, Brian Jones' ex-girlfriend Linda, had moved to LA, become the partner of the singer Gram Parsons, and had appeared in the documentary You Are What You Eat with the Band and Tiny Tim. She had fallen out of touch with Donovan, though she would later become his wife. Incidentally, she had a son to Brian Jones who had been abandoned by his rock-star father -- the son's name is Julian. The other woman with whom Donovan was in love was Jenny Boyd, the sister of George Harrison's wife Pattie. Jenny at the time was in a relationship with Alexis Mardas, a TV repairman and huckster who presented himself as an electronics genius to the Beatles, who nicknamed him Magic Alex, and so she was unavailable, but Donovan had written a song about her, released as a single just before they all went to Rishikesh: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Jennifer Juniper"] Donovan considered himself and George Harrison to be on similar spiritual paths and called Harrison his "spirit-brother", though Donovan was more interested in Buddhism, which Harrison considered a corruption of the more ancient Hinduism, and Harrison encouraged Donovan to read Autobiography of a Yogi. It's perhaps worth noting that Donovan's father had a different take on the subject though, saying "You're not going to study meditation in India, son, you're following that wee lassie Jenny" Donovan and his friend weren't the only other celebrities to come to Rishikesh. The actor Mia Farrow, who had just been through a painful divorce from Frank Sinatra, and had just made Rosemary's Baby, a horror film directed by Roman Polanski with exteriors shot at the Dakota building in New York, arrived with her sister Prudence. Also on the trip was Paul Horn, a jazz saxophonist who had played with many of the greats of jazz, not least of them Duke Ellington, whose Sweet Thursday Horn had played alto sax on: [Excerpt: Duke Ellington, "Zweet Zursday"] Horn was another musician who had been inspired to investigate Indian spirituality and music simultaneously, and the previous year he had recorded an album, "In India," of adaptations of ragas, with Ravi Shankar and Alauddin Khan: [Excerpt: Paul Horn, "Raga Vibhas"] Horn would go on to become one of the pioneers of what would later be termed "New Age" music, combining jazz with music from various non-Western traditions. Horn had also worked as a session musician, and one of the tracks he'd played on was "I Know There's an Answer" from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "I Know There's an Answer"] Mike Love, who co-wrote that track and is one of the lead singers on it, was also in Rishikesh. While as we'll see not all of the celebrities on the trip would remain practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, Love would be profoundly affected by the trip, and remains a vocal proponent of TM to this day. Indeed, his whole band at the time were heavily into TM. While Love was in India, the other Beach Boys were working on the Friends album without him -- Love only appears on four tracks on that album -- and one of the tracks they recorded in his absence was titled "Transcendental Meditation": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Transcendental Meditation"] But the trip would affect Love's songwriting, as it would affect all of the musicians there. One of the few songs on the Friends album on which Love appears is "Anna Lee, the Healer", a song which is lyrically inspired by the trip in the most literal sense, as it's about a masseuse Love met in Rishikesh: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Anna Lee, the Healer"] The musicians in the group all influenced and inspired each other as is likely to happen in such circumstances. Sometimes, it would be a matter of trivial joking, as when the Beatles decided to perform an off-the-cuff song about Guru Dev, and did it in the Beach Boys style: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] And that turned partway through into a celebration of Love for his birthday: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] Decades later, Love would return the favour, writing a song about Harrison and their time together in Rishikesh. Like Donovan, Love seems to have considered Harrison his "spiritual brother", and he titled the song "Pisces Brothers": [Excerpt: Mike Love, "Pisces Brothers"] The musicians on the trip were also often making suggestions to each other about songs that would become famous for them. The musicians had all brought acoustic guitars, apart obviously from Ringo, who got a set of tabla drums when George ordered some Indian instruments to be delivered. George got a sitar, as at this point he hadn't quite given up on the instrument, and he gave Donovan a tamboura. Donovan started playing a melody on the tamboura, which is normally a drone instrument, inspired by the Scottish folk music he had grown up with, and that became his "Hurdy-Gurdy Man": [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man"] Harrison actually helped him with the song, writing a final verse inspired by the Maharishi's teachings, but in the studio Donovan's producer Mickie Most told him to cut the verse because the song was overlong, which apparently annoyed Harrison. Donovan includes that verse in his live performances of the song though -- usually while doing a fairly terrible impersonation of Harrison: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man (live)"] And similarly, while McCartney was working on a song pastiching Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, but singing about the USSR rather than the USA, Love suggested to him that for a middle-eight he might want to sing about the girls in the various Soviet regions: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Back in the USSR"] As all the guitarists on the retreat only had acoustic instruments, they were very keen to improve their acoustic playing, and they turned to Donovan, who unlike the rest of them was primarily an acoustic player, and one from a folk background. Donovan taught them the rudiments of Travis picking, the guitar style we talked about way back in the episodes on the Everly Brothers, as well as some of the tunings that had been introduced to British folk music by Davey Graham, giving them a basic grounding in the principles of English folk-baroque guitar, a style that had developed over the previous few years. Donovan has said in his autobiography that Lennon picked the technique up quickly (and that Harrison had already learned Travis picking from Chet Atkins records) but that McCartney didn't have the application to learn the style, though he picked up bits. That seems very unlike anything else I've read anywhere about Lennon and McCartney -- no-one has ever accused Lennon of having a surfeit of application -- and reading Donovan's book he seems to dislike McCartney and like Lennon and Harrison, so possibly that enters into it. But also, it may just be that Lennon was more receptive to Donovan's style at the time. According to McCartney, even before going to Rishikesh Lennon had been in a vaguely folk-music and country mode, and the small number of tapes he'd brought with him to Rishikesh included Buddy Holly, Dylan, and the progressive folk band The Incredible String Band, whose music would be a big influence on both Lennon and McCartney for the next year: [Excerpt: The Incredible String Band, "First Girl I Loved"] According to McCartney Lennon also brought "a tape the singer Jake Thackray had done for him... He was one of the people we bumped into at Abbey Road. John liked his stuff, which he'd heard on television. Lots of wordplay and very suggestive, so very much up John's alley. I was fascinated by his unusual guitar style. John did ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun' as a Jake Thackray thing at one point, as I recall.” Thackray was a British chansonnier, who sang sweetly poignant but also often filthy songs about Yorkshire life, and his humour in particular will have appealed to Lennon. There's a story of Lennon meeting Thackray in Abbey Road and singing the whole of Thackray's song "The Statues", about two drunk men fighting a male statue to defend the honour of a female statue, to him: [Excerpt: Jake Thackray, "The Statues"] Given this was the music that Lennon was listening to, it's unsurprising that he was more receptive to Donovan's lessons, and the new guitar style he learned allowed him to expand his songwriting, at precisely the same time he was largely clean of drugs for the first time in several years, and he started writing some of the best songs he would ever write, often using these new styles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Julia"] That song is about Lennon's dead mother -- the first time he ever addressed her directly in a song, though it would be far from the last -- but it's also about someone else. That phrase "Ocean child" is a direct translation of the Japanese name "Yoko". We've talked about Yoko Ono a bit in recent episodes, and even briefly in a previous Beatles episode, but it's here that she really enters the story of the Beatles. Unfortunately, exactly *how* her relationship with John Lennon, which was to become one of the great legendary love stories in rock and roll history, actually started is the subject of some debate. Both of them were married when they first got together, and there have also been suggestions that Ono was more interested in McCartney than in Lennon at first -- suggestions which everyone involved has denied, and those denials have the ring of truth about them, but if that was the case it would also explain some of Lennon's more perplexing behaviour over the next year. By all accounts there was a certain amount of finessing of the story th
"Now and Then" was followed up by the sort-of 50th anniversary of "Red and Blue". This week we look at three albums of goodness from the folks at Universal Music. The blue album is very much a compilation in the traditional sense - a nice sampler for the Giles Martin post-2017 remixes. This week we consider the additions to the collection, other choices that might have been made and what is that sound in "Hey Bulldog"
Anden del af denne “Toppermost” om Yellow Submarine tager fat, hvor første del slap. Medvært Claus Pilegaard og Niels Harild skal i dybden med “Hey Bulldog”, der netop suverænt har vundet afstemningen om "bedste sang" på “Yellow Submarine”-LP´en fra 1969. En afstemning afholdt i "Elsker The Beatles Facebook-gruppe": https://www.facebook.com/groups/464918250758804 Derfra bevæger vi os henover George Harrisons monster-opus “It´s All Too Much”, til klassikeren “All You Need Is Love2, der fik et nyt liv på soundtrack-pladen. Derefter dykker vi (undskyld) ned i George Martins spændende soundtrack på side 2. Den nok mindst spillede pladeside i Beatles-kataloget, men også en virkelig interessant samling af filmmusik der fortjener en dybere undersøgelse. Og som har masser af fine momenter. The Yellow Submarine Songtrack fra 1999 får også en tur i maskinen, så der er rigeligt at glæde sig over i denne anden del af episoden, der virkelig tager lytteren med på en gyngende sørejse. Håbet er inspirere lytteren til selv at gribe fat i det anderledes Beatles-album, og finde lysten til at give BEGGE sider af pladen en ny chance. Hey Bulldog video som omtales i episoden finder du her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4vbJQ-MrKo Podcastens facebook side: https://www.facebook.com/elskerthebeatles/ Podcastens instagram:https://www.instagram.com/elskerthebeatles/ Podcastens X: https://twitter.com/ElskerThe
Songwriter and singer James Clark talks with host Paul Romanuk about The Beatles' 1969 soundtrack album for the animated film Yellow Submarine.EPISODE NOTES-you can find out about James and his band, James Clark Institute, at their website-here's a good BBC article on the animated film that went with the album and how it resonates on so many different levels and is, in the eyes of many, a cult classic-we talk about one of James Clark Institute's songs - Marcella Never Got The News. The song is about a 1959 float plane crash in Saskatchewan, in which the pilot died and the plane was never found. That is, until July of 2018, when the wreck was discovered at the bottom of a lake. On the same day the discovery was made, the wife of the deceased pilot passed away. She died before getting news of the finding. The song is based on a book, Into The Mist, by Victoria Hetherington. Here's a CBC article that fills in some details.-we talk about The Beatles song Hey Bulldog. It was an interesting song that The Beatles were filmed, in the studio, creating and recording. There are very few films of them actually working in the studio. Here's a link to some of the film clips from that day.-speaking of films of The Beatles working, here's a link to the short BBC film on the creation of the song All You Need Is Love for the Our World worldwide television broadcast of June, 1967, where the song was premiered.
Hey Bulldog To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The National League won the All-Star game thanks to Rockies catcher Elias Díaz blasting a two-run homer off Félix Bautista of the Orioles, who had only given up three homers all season.So, let's do the home run chain for Díaz today… it started six years ago in New York!* Elias Díaz hit his first home run off Paul Sewald, 6/2/17And… Díaz is a chain-starter! That was the first home run that Paul Sewald allowed, after having started his rookie season out of the Mets' bullpen with 14 straight homerless appearances, in which he had 24 strikeouts and four walks over 20.1 innings with a 2.21 ERA, holding opponents to a .621 OPS.It all fell apart on a Friday night in Flushing, when Díaz had already put the Pirates ahead with a three-run double off Matt Harvey, but the Mets had regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a Michael Conforto homer, Neil Walker triple, a Gerrit Cole wild pitch, and Lucas Duda's second home run of the game.With the Mets up, 7-4, Josh Bell led off the sixth with a homer, and Harvey was pulled after walking Andrew McCutchen. Sewald came in, got tagged for a single by Jordy Mercer, and then served up Díaz's three-run blast. It got worse for Sewald, as after he struck out Max Moroff, there was a single by Adam Frazier, an RBI double by Josh Harrison, and a single by Gregory Polanco. Sewald then hit David Freese with a pitch to load the bases, walked Bell to force in another run, and got charged for one last run after Neil Ramirez entered, as McCutchen hit a sacrifice fly.Here are the highlights!Díaz now has 51 career home runs, plus a really awesome one in an exhibition game. And the six runs batted in are no longer a career high: Díaz knocked in seven last year in Denver, capped by a walk-off homer. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com/subscribe
Sam Whiles is the host of Paul or Nothing, a podcast all about Paul McCartney. He discusses one of the Beatles' finest rock tunes, Hey Bulldog.Paul or Nothing podcast: https://mccartneypod.podbean.comPaul or Nothing blog: http://www.paulmccartneypod.wordpress.comSam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/McCartneyPodSam on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-or-Nothing-Podcast/100063627630062/Sam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whiles1/Sam on YouTube, including Macca in Your Attic: https://www.youtube.com/@paulornothing773
Featured Songs: 00:38 - 01-26-23 - Jack Straw - Brooklyn Bowl - Brooklyn, NY* 15:50 - 01-27-23 - Cats Under the Stars - The Capitol Theatre - Port Chester, NY 35:43 - 01-28-23 - Hard to Handle > Hey Bulldog > Hard to Handle - The Capitol Theatre - Port Chester, NY 43:28 - 01-29-23 - It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry - The Capitol Theatre - Port Chester, NY 52:19 - 01-29-23 - Lost Sailor > Saint of Circumstance - The Capitol Theatre - Port Chester, NY * Special Guest: Bob WeirSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episdoe I talk about one of my favourite Beatles songs Support me on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oggi è il 25 dicembre, quindi ecco la puntata speciale di Natale. Quest'anno, l'album non presente su Spotify che vi porto è "Pop Kills Your Soul", degli Afterhours, uscito nel 1993. Ringrazio Manuel Agnelli perché è un musicista da paura (peccato che ho iniziato ad apprezzarlo solo recentemente con l'ultimo album, "Ama il prossimo tuo come te stesso"), e la sua carriera è stata sempre improntata alla qualità. Mi dispiace che il CD di questo album sia introvabile, altrimenti avrei avuto la possibilità di darvi dei file ancora migliori di quelli in questa puntata. Canzone in sottofondo nell'introduzione: "Grenade", di Jack Black.Tracklist e minutaggio:- 00:04:43 Pop Kills Your Soul- 00:08:32 Come Inside- 00:13:14 Oxygen- 00:19:46 On Time (cover dei Bee Gees)- 00:24:36 Living on the Land of Sweetener- 00:27:10 Coalitions- 00:34:06 Terry Fill Me Up- 00:36:29 Hey Bulldog (cover dei The Beatles)- 00:39:21 Compromise Is Going to Kill My Baby- 00:44:03 Slush
Your Blottos start by reviewing this year's Chop Hall entrants, gifts from friends, Tommy's creepy kid chair, talking brothers, our guest Brother Bryan, Beatles Brunch vs. Lemmy Lunch, discovering that your brother is a kleptomaniac, Becker's Beautiful Taxes, our guest bringing a competing soundboard, making comparisons because of our experience with Guitar Hero, our best Boyz II Men impressions, and the bark-infused "Hey Bulldog."As always, you can find Team Blotto Beatles on Instagram (@blottobeatles) and Twitter (@blottobeatles), by emailing us (blottobeatles@gmail.com), or on the web (blottobeatles.com). We want to hear from you!Please also take the time to rate and review us on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.We have a shop! Grab some merch. You can also drunk dial us (tel:+18572339793) or leave us a tip in our new tip jar (don't forget to include a message telling us what drinks we should drink with the money).See the canonical, argument-ending list of Beatles songs we are assembling here: https://www.blottobeatles.com/list; listen to it on Spotify here.Please remember to enjoy Blotto Beatles responsibly.Peace and Love.Hosts: Becker and TommyGuest: Brother BryanExecutive Producer: Scotty C.Additional Musical Supervision: RB (@ryanobrooks)Associate Musical Supervision: Tim Clark (@nodisassemble)#PeteBestGetThatCheck
Train of Thought is a podcast hosted by Rob Tobias focusing on culture, music, interviews and society. This show features songs of JOHN LENNON. Tomorrow Never Knows, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Nobody Loves You When You are Down and Out, Julia, Hey Bulldog, Strangers Room, Yer Blues, and In My Life. Comments and questions can be sent to rob@robtobias.com
www.iconsandoutlaws.com Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton was born June 22, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York City, right here in the U.S., to Catholic parents, Fred and Catrine. Her mother was from Sicily. She has two siblings, a younger brother Fred (nicknamed Butch), and an older sister, Ellen. Her parents divorced when she was five. Her earliest childhood days were spent in Brooklyn, but when she was about four years old, the family moved to Ozone Park, Queens, where she lived in a railroad-style apartment through her teenage years. Growing up, Lauper felt like an outcast. She grew up listening to such artists as The Beatles and Judy Garland. Then, at only 12 years old, she began writing songs and playing an acoustic guitar that she got from her sister. Cyndi was primarily raised by her mother, who worked as a waitress to support the family. Mom loved the arts and frequently took Cyndi and her siblings to Manhattan to see Shakespeare plays or visit art museums. However, Cyndi did not do particularly well in school. She was reportedly kicked out of several parochial schools in her youth. Raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Cyndi Lauper recounted in Boze Hadleigh's "Inside the Hollywood Closet" the time a nun attacked her after catching a nine-year-old Lauper scratching a friend's back: "A nun ran in, ripped me off her back, threw me against the lockers, beat the s**t out of me, and called me a lesbian." As many kids do, she expressed herself with various hair colors and eccentric clothing. She took a friend's advice to spell her name as "Cyndi" rather than "Cindy." Unfortunately, her" unusual" sense of style led to classmates bullying her and even throwing stones at her. Lauper went to Richmond Hill High School, where she was expelled but later earned her GED. In her book, Cyndi revealed that after her stepfather threatened to sexually assault her and her sister and then secretly watched her take a bath, she left home for good. Cyndi left Home at 17 to escape her creepy ass stepfather, intending to study art. Her journey took her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog Sparkle, trying to find herself. She eventually traveled to Vermont, taking art classes at Johnson State College and supporting herself by working odd jobs. Money was sparse, so she waitressed, served as an office assistant, and even sang in a Japanese restaurant for a time. At one point, her boyfriend at the time hunted and shot a squirrel, which she cooked up and ate. Lauper also faced an unplanned pregnancy, which she wanted, but her boyfriend did not. So, Lauper terminated the pregnancy. "Nobody wants to run in and do that," She later told HuffPost. "It's just that I didn't want to have a kid that I love come into the world and not be able to share the kid with a dad." During this period, Cyndi got around by hitchhiking. Unfortunately, she put herself into close quarters with some potentially crappy individuals, such as the man who gave her a ride and forced her to perform a sexual act on him. "I just wanted to be able to live through it, get to the other side of it." On another occasion, she was assaulted by a bandmate and two accomplices. Sometimes, it all understandably got too overwhelming for Lauper. "A lot of times I couldn't take it anymore, so I just lay in bed all the time," Lauper wrote. "When I really couldn't deal with anything, I used to get the shakes, just complete anxiety attacks." In 2019, Lauper gave the commencement address at Northern Vermont University-Johnson, the academic institution that now includes Johnson State. At this event, NVU awarded her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. In the early 1970s, Cyndi performed as a vocalist with several different cover bands. One of those bands, Doc West, covered disco songs and Janis Joplin. A later band, Flyer, was active in the New York metropolitan area, singing songs by bands including Bad Company, Jefferson Airplane, and Logan's favorite, Led Zeppelin. Although She was performing on stage and loving that part, she was not happy singing covers. One night, while singing a cover of Kiki Dee's "I've Got the Music in Me" in 1974, her voice gave out. But it came back shortly after, and Lauper continued to sing in cover bands and a Janis Joplin tribute act. Then, in 1977, Cyndi's pipes said no more. Her voice disappeared again, and doctors discovered that she'd suffered a collapsed vocal cord. Recommended by her temporary replacement in the Joplin cover band, Lauper sought the help of vocal coach Katie Agresta. She helped heal Cyndi and provided her with the tools and techniques to prevent it from happening again. Agresta also helped her realize that she was singing the wrong music entirely, discovering that she was more suited to pop, not hard rock. As Lauper wrote in her memoir, "[I realized] what I was aching for — to sing my own songs, in my own voice, in my own style, that I made up myself." In 1978, Lauper met saxophone player John Turi through her manager Ted Rosenblatt. Turi and Lauper formed a band named Blue Angel, Combining a New Wave look with a '60s throwback sound, and recorded a demo tape of original music. Steve Massarsky, manager of The Allman Brothers Band, heard the tape and liked Lauper's voice. He bought Blue Angel's contract for $5,000 and became their manager. "The playing was bad. There was something interesting about the singer's voice, but that was all," he later told Rolling Stone. Massarky set up a few major label showcases, but they all thought the same thing; the band wasn't great, but the singer was something special. Lauper received recording offers as a solo artist but held out, wanting the band to be included in any deal she made. She even turned down the chance to record a song by herself for the soundtrack to the MeatLoaf movie Roadie, produced by legendary disco song crafter Giorgio Moroder, the founder of the former Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany. Blue Angel was eventually signed by Polydor Records and released a self-titled album on the label in 1980. Lauper hated the artwork, saying it made her look like Big Bird. Still, Rolling Stone magazine later included it as one of the 100 best new wave album covers (2003). Despite critical acclaim, the album sold poorly ("It went lead," as Lauper later joked), and the band broke up. The members of Blue Angel had a falling-out with Massarsky and fired him as their manager. He later filed an $80,000 suit against them, which forced Cyndi into bankruptcy. She then temporarily lost her voice due to an inverted cyst in her vocal cord. After Blue Angel broke up, Cyndi worked in retail stores, waitressing at IHOP (which she quit after being demoted to the hostess when the manager sexually harassed her), and singing in local clubs. Her most frequent gigs were at El Sombrero, which sounds like they have amazing chimichangas. Music critics who saw Her perform with Blue Angel believed she had star potential due to her four-octave singing range, which was not an easy feat. Then, in 1981, while singing in a local New York bar, Cyndi met David Wolff. He took over as her manager and had her sign a recording contract with Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic Records. On October 14, 1983, Cyndi released her first solo album," She's So Unusual." The album became a worldwide hit, peaking at No. 4 in the U.S. and reaching the top five in eight other countries. She became extremely popular with teenagers and critics, partly due to her hybrid punk image, which was crafted by stylist Patrick Lucas. Lauper co-wrote four songs on She's So Unusual, including the hits "Time After Time" and "She Bop." On the songs she did not write, Lauper sometimes changed the lyrics. Such is the case with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," originally written and recorded by Robert Hazard, which you can find on YouTube, and it's pretty awesome. She found the original lyrics misogynistic, so she rewrote the song as an anthem for young women. The album includes five cover songs, including The Brains' new wave track "Money Changes Everything" (No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100) and Prince's "When You Were Mine." The album made Cyndi Lauper the first female artist to have four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 top five hits from one album. The L.P. has stayed in the Top 200 charts for over 65 weeks and sold 16 million copies worldwide. Cyndi won Best New Artist at the 1985 Grammy Awards. She's So Unusual also received nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"), and Song of the Year (for "Time After Time"). She wore almost a pound of necklaces at her award ceremony. It also won the Grammy for Best Album Package, which went to the art director, Janet Perr. The video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" won the inaugural award for Best Female Video at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, making Cyndi an MTV staple. The video featured professional wrestling manager "Captain" Lou Albano as Lauper's father and her real-life mother, Catrine, as her mother, and also featured her attorney, her manager, her brother Butch, and her dog Sparkle. She was a huge wrestling fan. In 1984–85, Cyndi appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone magazine, Time, and Newsweek. In addition, she appeared twice on the cover of People and was named a Ms. magazine Woman of the Year in 1985. In 1985, she participated in "USA for Africa's" famine-relief fund-raising single "We Are the World," which has sold more than 20 million copies since then. At the Grammys in 1985, She appeared with another professional wrestler, a Mr. Terry" Hulk" Hogan, who played her "bodyguard." "'The Grammy means a lot to me,' said Cyndi (in the arms of Hulk Hogan) after winning Best New Artist, 'Because I never thought I would amount to anything. I always wanted to make art.'" She would later make many appearances as herself in a number of the World Wrestling Federation's "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection" events and played Wendi Richter's manager in the very first WrestleMania event. Dave Wolff, Lauper's boyfriend and manager at the time, was a wrestling fan as a boy and helped set up the rock and wrestling connection. In 1985, Cyndi released the single "The Goonies' R' Good Enough," from the soundtrack to the movie The Goonies and an accompanying video that featured several wrestling stars. The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She then received two nominations at the 1986 Grammy Awards: Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "What a Thrill" and Best Long Form Music Video for Cyndi Lauper in Paris. Cyndi released her second album, "True Colors," in 1986. It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 42 and has sold roughly 7 million copies. In 1986, She appeared on the Billy Joel album The Bridge, with a song called "Code of Silence." She is credited with having written the lyrics with Joel, and she sings a duet with him. In the same year, Cyndi also sang the theme song for Pee-wee's Playhouse, credited as "Ellen Shaw." In 1987, David Wolff produced a concert film called Cyndi Lauper in Paris. The concert was broadcast on HBO. Cyndi made her film debut in August 1988 in the comedy Vibes, alongside a nobody named Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk, and Julian Sands. She played a psychic in search of a city of gold in South America. To prepare for the role, Cyndi took a few finger-waving and hair-setting classes at the Robert Fiancé School of Beauty in New York and studied with a few Manhattan psychics. The film flopped and was poorly received by critics but would later be considered a cult classic. Cyndi then contributed a track called "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)" for the Vibes soundtrack, but the song was not included. Instead, a high-energy, comic action/adventure romp through a Chinese laundry video for the song was released. The song reached No. 54 on the U.S. charts, but did way better in Australia, reaching No. 8. Cyndi's third album, A Night to Remember, was released in 1989. The album had one hit, the No. 6 single "I Drove All Night," originally recorded by Roy Orbison, three years before his death on December 6, 1988. Cyndi received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 1990 Grammy Awards for That track. Still, overall, album sales for the album were down. A side note; The music video for the song "My First Night Without You" was one of the first to be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired. That record sold around 1.3 million copies. Due to her friendship with a familiar name here at Icons and Outlaws, Yoko Ono, Cyndi was a part of the May 1990 John Lennon tribute concert in Liverpool. She performed the Beatles song "Hey Bulldog" and the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero." She was also involved in Sean Lennon's project, "The Peace Choir, "performing a new version of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance." Shortly after, the album was met with a dismal response, and she split with her boyfriend and manager, David Wolff. Cyndi lived alone in a New York hotel, emotionally drained and considering suicide. "I had come so far but felt like I had failed," she wrote in Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir (via Bullyville). "I would go to the studio, and then sit in my dark room and drink vodka. I had to spend most of my time alone. I was grieving. I thought the sadness would never go away." Indirectly, it was Cyndi's best-known song that encouraged her to try to crawl out of her low place: "The only thing that always prevented me from suicide is that I never wanted a headline to read, 'Girl who wanted to have fun just didn't.'" On November 24, 1991, Cyndi married actor David Thornton, who's been in home alone 3, John Q with Denzel, and that god-awful tear-jerker, the Notebook. Cyndi's fourth album, "Hat Full of Stars," was released in June 1993 and was met with critical acclaim but failed commercially, unsupported by her label. The album tackled topics like homophobia, spousal abuse, racism, and abortion, sold fewer than 120,000 copies in the United States and peaked at No. 112 on the Billboard charts. The album's song "Sally's Pigeons" video features the then-unknown Julia Stiles playing a young Cyndi. You may remember Julia from ten things I hate about you, alongside a young Heath Ledger. In 1993, Cyndi returned to acting, playing Michael J. Fox's ditzy secretary in the movie Life with Mikey. She also won an Emmy Award for her role as Marianne Lugasso in the hugely popular sitcom Mad About You with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt. On November 19, 1997, Cyndi gave birth to her son, Declyn Wallace Lauper Thornton, who is now a trap rapper. Her fifth album," Sisters of Avalon," was released in Japan in 1996 and worldwide in 1997. Just like "Hat Full of Stars," some songs on "Sisters of Avalon" addressed dark themes. The song "Ballad of Cleo and Joe" addressed the complications of a drag queen's double life. The song "Say a Prayer" was written for a friend who had died from AIDS. "Unhook the Stars" was used in the movie of the same name. Again without support from her label, the release failed in America, spending a week on the Billboard album chart at No. 188. This album also received much critical praise, including People magazine, which declared it "'90s nourishment for body and soul. Lauper sets a scene, makes us care, gives us hope." Let's just say it… her label sucks! On January 17, 1999, Cyndi appeared as an animated version of herself in The Simpsons episode "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken." She sang the National Anthem to the "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" melody. That same year, she opened for Cher's Do You Believe? Tour alongside Wild Orchid. Yeah, that group with a young Fergie. Cyndi also appeared in the films "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" and The "Opportunists." In addition, she contributed to the soundtrack of the 2000 animated film, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, performing the song "I Want a Mom That Will Last Forever." On October 12, 2000, Cyndi took part in the television show Women in Rock, Girls with Guitars performing with Ann Wilson of Heart and with the girl group Destiny's Child and the queen B herself!. A CD of the songs performed was released exclusively to Sears stores from September 30 to October 31, 2001, and was marketed as a fundraiser for breast cancer. In 2002, Sony issued a best-of CD, The Essential Cyndi Lauper. Cyndi also released a cover album with Sony/Epic Records entitled At Last (formerly Naked City), which was released in 2003. At Last received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for "Unchained Melody." The effort was also a commercial hit, selling 4.5 million records. In April 2004, Cyndi performed during the VH1's benefit concert, "Divas Live" 2004, alongside Ashanti, Gladys Knight, Jessica Simpson, Joss Stone, and Patti LaBelle. This event supported the Save the Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America's public schools and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child's complete education. She made appearances on Showtime's hit show "Queer as Folk" in 2005, directed a commercial for the Totally 80s edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit in 2006, served as a judge on the 6th Annual Independent Music Awards, and made her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated "The Threepenny Opera" playing "Jenny." In addition, she performed with Shaggy, Scott Weiland of Velvet Revolver/Stone Temple Pilots, Pat Monahan of Train, Ani DiFranco, and The Hooters in the VH1 Classics special Decades Rock Live. In 2006, she sang "Message To Michael" with Dionne Warwick and "Beecharmer" with Nellie McKay on McKay's Pretty Little Head album. On October 16, 2006, Cyndi was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. In 2007, she served as a guest performer on the song "Lady in Pink" on an episode of the Nick Jr. show, The Backyardigans. Cyndi's sixth studio album, "Bring Ya to the Brink," was released in the United States on May 27, 2008. Regarded as one of her best works when it was released, the Songwriters Hall of Fame has regarded the album track 'High and Mighty' as one of her essential songs. The album would be Cyndi's last release to date of original material, in addition to being her last for Epic Records, her label since her 1983 debut solo album. The album debuted at #41 on the Billboard 200, with 12,000 copies sold. Other projects for 2008 included the True Colors Tour and a Christmas duet with Swedish band The Hives, entitled "A Christmas Duel." The song was released as a CD single and a 7" vinyl in Sweden. Lauper also performed on "Girls Night Out," headlining it with Rosie O'Donnell in the U.S. On November 17, 2009, Cyndi performed with Wyclef Jean in a collaboration called "Slumdog Millionaire," on The Late Show with David Letterman. In January 2010, Mattel released a Cyndi Lauper Barbie doll as part of their "Ladies of the 80s" series. In March 2010, Cyndi appeared on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice with the then-future president, Donald Trump, coming in sixth place. Cyndi's 7th studio album, Memphis Blues, was released on June 22, 2010, and debuted on the Billboard Blues Albums chart at No. 1 and at No. 26 on the Billboard Top 200. The album remained No. 1 on the Blues Albums chart for 14 consecutive weeks; Memphis Blues was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 2011 Grammy Awards. According to the Brazilian daily newspaper O Globo, the album had sold 600,000 copies worldwide by November 2010. In addition, Cyndi set out on her most extensive tour ever, the Memphis Blues Tour, which had more than 140 shows, to support the album. Cyndi made international news in March 2011 for an impromptu performance of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" while waiting for a delayed flight at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires. A video was later posted on YouTube. In November 2011, she released two Christmas singles exclusive to iTunes. The first release was a Blues-inspired cover of Elvis Presley's classic "Blue Christmas," and the second was a new version of "Home for the holidays," a duet with Norah Jones. In June 2012, Lauper made her first appearance for WWE in 27 years to promote WWE Raw's 1000th episode to memorialize "Captain" Lou Albano. In September 2012, Cyndi performed at fashion designer Betsey Johnson's 40-year Retrospective Fashion show. She also released a New York Times best-selling memoir, "Cyndi Lauper A Memoir," which detailed her struggle with child abuse and depression. Cyndi then composed music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, with Harvey Fierstein writing the book. The musical was based on the 2006 independent film Kinky Boots. The musical tells the story of Charlie Price. Having inherited a shoe factory from his father, Charlie forms an unlikely partnership with cabaret performer and drag queen Lola to produce a line of high-heeled boots and save the business. It opened in Chicago in October 2012 and on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 4, 2013. She won Best Score for Kinky Boots in May at the 63rd annual Outer Critics Circle Awards. The musical led the 2013 Tony Awards, with 13 nominations and six wins, including Best Musical and Best Actor. In addition, she won the award for Best Original Score. Cyndi was the first woman to win solo in this category. After a six-year run and 2,507 regular shows, Kinky Boots ended its Broadway run on April 7, 2019. It is the 25th-longest-running Broadway musical in history. It grossed $297 million on Broadway. In the summer of 2013, celebrating the 30th anniversary of her debut album "She's So Unusual," Cyndi embarked on an international tour covering America and Australia. The show consisted of a mix of fan favorites and the entirety of the She's So Unusual record. She stated:" It's been such an amazing year for me. When I realized it's also the anniversary of the album that started my solo career, I knew it was the perfect time to thank my fans for sticking with me through it all. I'm so excited to perform She's So Unusual from beginning to end, song by song and I can't wait to see everyone!" The tourtour grossed over $1 million She was a guest on 36 dates of Cher's Dressed to Kill tour, starting April 23, 2014. In addition, a new album was confirmed by her in a website interview. Cyndi hosted the Grammy Pre-Telecast at the Nokia Theatre, L.A., on January 26, later accepting a Grammy for Kinky Boots (for Best Musical Theater Album). On April 1 (March 1 in Europe), Cyndi released the 30th Anniversary edition of She's So Unusual through Epic Records. It featured a remastered version of the original album plus three new remixes. The Deluxe Edition featured bonus tracks such as demos, a live recording, and a 3D cut-out of the bedroom featured in the 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' music video with a reusable sticker set. On September 17, 2014, Cyndi sang on the finale of America's Got Talent. Then, on September 25, as part of the Today Show's "Shine a Light" series, she re-recorded "True Colors" in a mashup with Sara Bareilles' "Brave" to raise awareness and money for children battling cancer. By October, the project had raised over $300,000. The Songwriters Hall of Fame added Cyndi to its nomination list in October 2014. Also, her fourth consecutive 'Home for the Holidays' benefit concert for homeless gay youth was announced in October. Acts included 50 Cent and Laverne Cox, with 100% of the net proceeds going to True Colors United. In July 2015, She announced a project with producer Seymour Stein. She later told Rolling Stone it was a country album co-produced by Tony Brown. On September 15, 2015, Kinky Boots opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End. In January 2016, Cyndi announced she would release a new album on May 6, 2016. This record was made up of her interpretations of early country classics entitled "Detour." The announcement was supported by a release of her version of Harlan Howard's "Heartaches by the Number" and a performance on Skyville Live with Kelsea Ballerini and Ingrid Michaelson. Then, on February 17, 2016, she released her version of Wanda Jackson's "Funnel of Love." In February 2016, Cyndi was nominated for an Olivier Award for contributing to the U.K. production of the play "Kinky Boots" along with Stephen Oremus, the man in charge of the arrangements. In January 2017, this production's album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. In May 2016, she was featured on "Swipe to the Right" from Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise by French producer Jean-Michel Jarre. This second album of the Electronica project is based on collaborations with artists like Tangerine Dream, Moby, Pet Shop Boys, and more. In October 2016, her son Dex Lauper was the opening act for her in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, for her dates on her Detour Tour. In January 2017, Cyndi was featured on Austin City Limits' 42nd season, performing some classic bangers alongside some of her country tunes from the "Detour." album. The episode aired on PBS. In March 2018, it was announced that Cyndi and co- "Time After Time" songwriter Rob Hyman would compose the score for the musical version of the 1988 film "Working Girl." Ya know the movie that starred Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. She teamed up with Hyman because she wanted "the music to sound like the 80s". The musical would be staged by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley. A developmental production premiere of the musical is planned for the 2021/2022 season. For Grandin Road, Cyndi exclusively designed her own Christmas collection, 'Cyndi Lauper Loves Christmas', available from September 2018. "I've always loved Christmas. It reminds me to find some happiness in the little things," she said. Her annual Home For The Holidays concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York was held on December 8, 2018. Cyndi guest starred, playing a lawyer in an episode of the reboot of the television series Magnum P.I.. The episode, titled "Sudden Death", aired on October 22, 2018. On November 15, 2018, iBillboard announced that Cyndi would receive the Icon Award at the Billboard's 13th annual Women in Music Event on December 6 in New York City. According to Billboard's editorial director, Jason Lipshutz, "The entire world recognizes the power of Cyndi Lauper's pop music, and just as crucially, she has used her undeniable talent to soar beyond music, create positive change in modern society and become a true icon." The song "Together" was featured in the Canadian computer-animated film Race time, released in January 2019. Originally written and performed in French by Dumas, Cyndi performed the English translation in the English version of the film initially titled La Course des tuques. On June 26, 2019, she performed at the opening ceremony of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019. Backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Cyndi played two concerts on July 12 and 13, 2019, at the iconic Hollywood Bowl. In September 2019, it was announced that Cyndi would star alongside Jane Lynch in the new Netflix comedy series described as "kind of The Golden Girls for today." However, as of March 2021, there have been no updates on this project. On April 23, 2020, Cyndi participated in an online fundraising concert to raise money for LGBTQ nightlife workers who struggled financially because of the coronavirus pandemic. Her finale was her performing "True Colors." The show was initiated by the Stonewall Inn Gives Back nonprofit organization of the historic Greenwich Village gay bar. In November 2020, She dueted with former top ten "American Idol" finalist Casey Abrams on a cover version of the song 'Eve of Destruction. In November last year, Shea Diamond featured Cyndi as a guest vocalist on the track 'Blame it on Christmas.' An official video was released in December. She then performed at this year's MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute Show, honoring folk icon Joni Mitchell on April 1. It was announced in May this year that Alison Ellwood will direct a career retrospective documentary about Cyndi. The project is already in production but does not yet have a release date. "Let The Canary Sing" will be the title of this career-spanning documentary produced by Sony Music Entertainment. Still killing it after all these years! "Shes So Unusual" ranked No. 487 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. In addition, the album ranked No. 41 on Rolling Stone's Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2012. "Time After Time" has been covered by over a hundred artists and was ranked at No. 22 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years and at No. 19 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s. "She Bop," the third single from She's So Unusual, is the first and only top ten song to directly mention a gay porn magazine. An ode to masturbation, it was included in the PMRC's "Filthy Fifteen" list, which led to the parental advisory sticker appearing on recordings thought to be unsuitable for young listeners. Rolling Stone ranked it the 36th best song of 1984, praising its unusual playfulness regarding sexuality. "True Colors" is now considered a gay anthem, after which True Colors United, which advocates for runaway and homeless LGBT youth, is so “colorfully” named. Info used from: Nickiswift.com Wikipedia.com
Når man har været Beatles-fan det meste af sit liv, er det selvsagt kæmpestort at indspille i Abbey Road studierne. Linus Valdemar prøvede det i 2018, iøvrigt samtidig med at.. Nej du må høre podcasten for at finde ud af HVEM der var i studie 4 samtidig. Men det ER stort. Også selvom en anden brugte "Mrs. Mills"- klaveret den dag. Vi skal ned på gulvet i Studio 2, og fornemme stemningen og historien i det ikoniske studie. Men vi skal også med på Linus Valdemars musikalske rejse, der i høj grad har Beatles som et af omdrejningspunkterne. Som sanger, guitarist, komponist og producer, og frontmand for The Oceans og Paper Tigers. Linus Valdemar har altid hørt Beatles og hans mor har en god pladesamling; Det kan ikke udelukkes at diverse æble-prydede plader, med tiden, er havnet på hans reoler. Vi taler om at producere musik, får afsløret Beatles-yndlings-albums, og diskuterer produktion og indflydelse fra de fire fra Liverpool. Og så får du Linus Valdemars bud på en god Beatles-playliste. Med solo-numre i blandet. Og vi skal selvfølgelig høre og tale om Paper Tigers bud på Lennons “Love” og “Hey Bulldog”. Find Paper Tigers her: https://papertigers.dk https://www.facebook.com/papertigersdk Find The Oceans her: https://www.facebook.com/theoceansofficial/
We're at Heat 16 AKA the 'curios and oddballs' heat, as our random selection brings us four very quirky and very different songs to choose from: With A Little Help from My Friends, Boys, Hey Bulldog and Old Brown Shoe. Just to warn you now: Rob's mild distaste for Pepper may rear its head again...
Label: Leo Records Titel - Curious and Curiouser - For No One - Whistle Song - Yodelecho - Valse - Medley: 1. Hey Bulldog - 2. Where's James?
Teil 5 •Fake-Doku-Comedy• Was passiert mit Erfolgsmenschen, wenn ihnen das Leben eine saftige Krise vorsetzt? Richtig, sie setzen noch eine Krise drauf. Als die Macher der Blockbuster-Serie CAIMAN CLUB erfahren, dass die geplante Produktion der dritten Staffel aufgrund der aktuellen Corona-Situation verschoben werden muss, fallen sämtliche Hüllen. // Von Stuart Kummer und Edgar Linscheid / WDR 2020 / www.hoerspiel.wdr.de Ein 1LIVE-Podcast, © WDR 2021
The fifty-seventh Skipped on Shuffle episode will be focused on the song “Sifting” by Nirvana off their 1989 album Bleach.
Episode 37! In this episode, we continue hashtag #JuneJams with part two of our discussion of June Millington's songs and guitar playing. We chat about the songs “Bitter Wine” from Fanny's first album, and “Hey Bulldog” & “Ain't That Peculiar” from Fanny Hill. Plus some other delicious things along the way! She gave women permission… Read more
Everything Everything released their first album Man Alive back in 2010 & Nick, who discovered them last Thursday, was an immediate fan. After a few listens, he decided to see what his old pals at Pitchfork had to say about this (still) fresh debut from a talented bunch of musicians; he did not like what he found. This week, Nick's admiration for the crew at Pitchfork is put to the test. [Man Alive Pitchfork Review]Songs:Everything Everything - “Schoolin”Everything Everything - “Weights”Dr. Lonnie Smith passed away last week at the age of 79 & Greg brings us a remembrance. An American jazz Hammond B3 organist, Smith merged jazz, funk, and soul as both a member of the George Benson Quartet (among other groups) and as a bandleader in his own right. He continued recording well into 2021 and his illness and subsequent passing came quickly. He'll be greatly missed and Greg's queued up a handful of his many gems to share his appreciation of his music.Songs:Dr. Lonnie Smith - “Scream (Live at Club Mozambique, Detroit, 1970)”Lou Donaldson - "Alligator Bogaloo”Dr. Lonnie Smith - “Sunshine Superman (feat Iggy Pop)”Finally, a question about The Beatles. Well, first let's listen to "Hey Bulldog" and then get some assumptions out of the way:-The Beatles are as close to universally loved as any band in history.-The Beatles are one of the largest influences on popular music in the latter-20th and 21st centuries.-They're respected on a musical, cultural and technical level by the vast majority of musicians and non-musicians alike.-With the exception of Drake fans, no one thinks The Beatles were just a bunch of hacks that got lucky.Okay, so the question: Were The Beatles successful because of their early teeny-bopper appeal or did stars truly align to make them a once-in-a-century phenomenon? Followup question, will we ever see something like them again? The guys discuss.Also, Greg's going to be on tour with The Red Not Chili Peppers over next couple weeks, check them out if they're playing nearby!
The Song from the 1969 album/soundtrack 'Yellow Submarine'. The Song that Meant Nothing to the Artist (The Beatles) but Something to the listener. From the Iconic Bassline to the Exiting Guitars and Pianos to the Upbeat Drums, This track does Rock. This is the Story behind The Beatles' Masterpiece Hey Bulldog! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/classicalbumpodcast/message
Dave Grohl's favorite Beatles song gets a lot of love on this episode! Fun game, google what drugs were the Beatles using in 1968 - we did!Do you know who played the guitar solo on this song? We offer our expert opinion. Did you know this song before 1998? This one is potentially the most obscure Beatles song.The last true group effort from the group, what is it about this track that contributes to The Beatles being the greatest band of all time? If you're lonely, you can talk to me.
Nuestro protagonista de la semana es uno de los guitarristas más respetados de todos los tiempos. Un músico que ha pasado por estilos tan dispares como el blues, el rock psicodélico y la música acústica. Las canciones menos conocidas de Eric Clapton, en Hey Bulldog.
Todos conocemos los grandes éxitos de la banda de Freddie Mercury, pero en su extensa discografía encontramos grandes canciones que jamás fueron editadas como singles. Las conocemos con la ayuda de Carlota Díaz.
Recorremos la trayectoria del cantautor James Taylor a través de las canciones que no fueron publicadas como singles en sus 50 años de carrera.
Más rock garajero con el famoso duo surgido en Detroit. En sus seis álbumes de estudio, The White Stripes esconden canciones poco reconocidas pero muy interesantes.
Vuelve el producto nacional a Hey Bulldog, con una de las bandas de rock español más reconocidas. M-Clan ha pasado por diversos estilos, desde el rock sureño hasta la música más comercial. Descubre las pequeñas joyas ocultas en su discografía.
En 1964, Jim Morrison y Ray Manzarek dieron origen a The Doors. En apenas 7 años de carrera musical, la formación compuso fantásticas canciones que han sido ignoradas. Hoy las presentamos en Hey Bulldog.
Una de las bandas con más repercusión de los 2000. Junto a formaciones como The White Stripes o The Black Keys, formaron parte de la segunda ola del garage rock. Las canciones menos conocidas de The Strokes están en Hey Bulldog.
Analizamos la trayectoria del Rey del Pop desde sus comienzos como miembro de los Jackson Five hasta su fallecimiento en 2009, a través de los temas que no llegaron a ser singles en su momento.
Hey Bulldog se centra en la carrera de Led Zeppelin, una de las bandas más importantes y más influyentes de la historia. Repasamos su vertiginosa trayectoria desde algunos temas escondidos entre sus grandes éxitos.
En sus siete álbumes de estudio, Queens Of The Stone esconde canciones geniales con su característico sonido stoner rock. Hoy las descubrimos en Hey Bulldog.
En los 11 discos de la banda californiana podemos encontrar canciones increibles a las que no se ha dado la importancia que merecen. Hoy las descubrimos en Hey Bulldog.
La banda que sentó las bases del Rock and Roll tal y como lo conocemos tambien tiene un buen puñado de canciones desconocidas. Recorremos su discografía con la ayuda de Javier Vaquerizo.
Una de las bandas mas célebres de la segunda oleada del garage rock en la década de 2010. El grupo liderado por Dan Auerbach tiene multitud de canciones que no han recibido el reconocimiento que merecen. Hoy escuchamos a The Black Keys en Hey Bulldog.
Este tercer capítulo radiofónico de Hey Bulldog lo dedicamos a ABBA. Haremos un recorrido por canciones menos conocidas del cuarteto sueco. Porque la genialidad de esta banda setentera va más allá de "Mamma mia" o "Chiquitita".
Hey Bulldog se centra en The Police, una de las bandas más influyentes y exitosas de finales de los 70 y principios de los 80. Analizamos su carrera a través de esos otros grandes temas menos conocidos como Born in the 50s, Truth hits everybody, etc.
La carrera de Muse es la protagonista de esta edición de Hey Bulldog. La banda británica atesora algunos de los temas más populares de los últimos 15 años. Nosotros repasamos su evolución musical gracias a las joyas escondidas en su discos y que no forman parte de los hits de las emisoras de rock.
Recorremos el trabajo de Pearl Jam desde sus inicios en Seattle. Esta semana en Hey Bulldog. Recorremos su carrera desde comienzos de los 90 con su debut "Ten" hasta sus éxitos más cercanos con álbumos como ¨Backspacer¨
1969年1月13日,披头士发行第10张录音室专辑《Yellow Submarine》,它也是动画电影《黄色潜水艇》的电影原声专辑。这部电影在出生时,披头士不想给任何支持,当电影公映后,披头士四个人发现自己错了,他们超爱这部电影,后悔没有更多的参与到电影的制作当中…… 本期推荐歌曲:John Lennon -
1969年1月13日,披头士发行第10张录音室专辑《Yellow Submarine》,它也是动画电影《黄色潜水艇》的电影原声专辑。这部电影在出生时,披头士不想给任何支持,当电影公映后,披头士四个人发现自己错了,他们超爱这部电影,后悔没有更多的参与到电影的制作当中…… 本期推荐歌曲:John Lennon -
This time Alice, Kristen, and Byron discuss “Hey Bulldog” and “Badge” as well as getting comments from June and Jean Millington too. […]
Las sesiones de la grabación de Hey Bulldog, donde aparece Paul, George y Ringo...
Legendary session god drummer Kenny Aronoff welcomes me to his LA studio for a inspirational chat about childhood dreams coming true. How he went from a child discovering rock'n'roll with the Beatles on Ed Sullivan to playing with Ringo Starr 50 years later on a TV special celebrating that very same Ed Sullivan appearance. How did John Mellencamp help him become a more Ringo-esque drummer? What does Kenny see as the drummer's true purpose in a recording session? What story did Paul McCartney tell him about the Beatles first trip to NYC? What's it like to play Beatles songs in front of and alongside Beatles? What's the difference between playing ‘Something' with Joe Walsh and ‘Hey Bulldog' with Dave Grohl? How did the Beatles use a “less is more” approach to create dynamics in their music. Plus, great stories of moments in the studio with the Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop, John Hiatt, Don Was and more. My Favorite Album is a podcast unpacking the great works of pop music. Each episode features a different songwriter or musician discussing their favorite album of all time - their history with it, the making of the album, individual songs and the album's influence on their own music. Jeremy Dylan is a filmmaker, journalist and photographer from Sydney, Australia. He directed the music documentary Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts and feature film Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins, and writes for Capital News magazine. If you've got any feedback or suggestions, drop us a line at myfavoritealbumpodcast@gmail.com. This episode was originally released in July 2016.
Legendary session god drummer Kenny Aronoff welcomes me to his LA studio for a inspirational chat about childhood dreams coming true. How he went from a child discovering rock'n'roll with the Beatles on Ed Sullivan to playing with Ringo Starr 50 years later on a TV special celebrating that very same Ed Sullivan appearance. How did John Mellencamp help him become a more Ringo-esque drummer? What does Kenny see as the drummer's true purpose in a recording session? What story did Paul McCartney tell him about the Beatles first trip to NYC? What's it like to play Beatles songs in front of and alongside Beatles? What's the difference between playing ‘Something' with Joe Walsh and ‘Hey Bulldog' with Dave Grohl? How did the Beatles use a “less is more” approach to create dynamics in their songs? Plus, great stories of moments in the studio with the Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop, John Hiatt, Don Was and more. My Favorite Album is a podcast unpacking the great works of pop music. Each episode features a different songwriter or musician discussing their favorite album of all time - their history with it, the making of the album, individual songs and the album's influence on their own music. Jeremy Dylan is a filmmaker, journalist and photographer from Sydney, Australia. He directed the the music documentary Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts and the film Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins, and writes for Capital News magazine.